Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-06-16
BAcCALAUREATE SERMON.
DELIVERED AT THE CONGREGATIONAL
CHUCRH, TO THE CLASS OF '87, LAM
CASTER HIGH SCHOOL, JUNE 18TH,
1887, REV. S. S. GRINNELL.

CASTER HIGH SCHOOL, JUNE 18TH,
1887, BY REV. S. S. GRINNELL.
| Tho understand all mysteries and all knowl
| edge and have not love, 4 am n0thtag.-Fr0m
Cor, IS, 3. knowledge puffeth up. Love build
eth up.-i Cor, 8, ].
These words are from the pen of one
of the finest scholars of his day. What
ever curriculum he had completed (and
it was probably generous one) there
is no doubt that he was educated in
the best sense of that word, 1. e., his
mind was drawn out, developed, SO that
he was master of argument, and could
riddle u sophism, as bis writings amply
show. A man of such wide research
and varied knowledge would certainly
be the last to put slight upon learn
ing
His pre-eminent place in the college
of the apostles is a constant and unan-
swerable testimony to the value OF
trained powers put into the arena OF
life.
And yet, standing on the vantage
ground of scholarly attainment, no one
is more ready than the cultured Paul to
appreciate the proper bound of knowl-
edge. That which raises the benumbed
faculties. gives steadiness and direction
to flights of fancy, and, Columbus-like,
discovers new thought-worlds. can
hardly be called less than glorious!
But it has boundaries, proper restric-
lions. Even to literary culture, stimu-
latiug as it is, must sometimes be said,
Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. +"
If any would enter the innermost sane
tuary of the human heart, where Gods
grandest attribute, t0Ue, sits enthroned,
wonder not if the Master would expel
the usurper with the scourge of small
cords!
| Science is the handmade of religion,
and must keep her place as servant,
proud (if she be wise) to serve so royal
a master; for, if 'science is star-eyed, "
as Campbell sings religion is sunlit, aye,
bathed in the resplendant glory of the
MONDAY sun. Turning now to the text.
| 1t is very evident that its statement is
purely hypothetical. No one knew bet
| ter than Paul that what he said could
never be. Tho | understand all myS-
teries.and all knowledge" Perhaps no
mystery can be fully fathomed. Ger
tainly no branch of knowledge can be
entirely understood. That would re-
quire Omniscience. AS you climb the
heights of knowledge. the horizon only
expands. You see more, but discover
more to see. Suppose you undertake to
compass full curriculum. You would
want at least round thousand years to
do any sort of justice. And the most OF
you will not live over q hundred. Begin
with yourselves. 1.-THE proper study OF
mankind is ~ man." Pope tells us. To
study man In his physical development,
his mental constitution, his moral ma
ture, his variety, his unity in variety, his
development, his future, hundred
years would not be too much. Over
the entrance to the Delphic Oracle were
the words know Thyself." The modern
oracle, like the ancient, responds to
self knowledge. But the Great Being,
who made US, partly revealed in nature,
in revelation, yet beyond our feeble
comprehension, (2)God, name suggest.
ing reverence, power, purity, love. A
hundred years would not be too much
to trace his luminous footprints, and
search for the hidings of his power
But we have only commenced. There
remain (3)Metaphysics. (DLaw in il:
broad scope, (OScience, (6)Theology
l(OArt, (8)Medicine, proplylactic, rem
edial, (9)Language, 10)AIathematics-
Ipure and applied. But full millennium
is provided for. and how much remains
If a man had all these, so inter-relateC
and intersecting are they. that he would
still wish to study all in their relations
and such topics IS correlation of forces
and the domain of law would come up
But already we have mapped on
enough for Methuselah, in these days
when three score and ten reaches to thu
Ioutermost of most lives.
/ Evidently what Paul meant was this
Conceive of man, capable of fathomins
mysteries, comprising the round 0
knowledge, without love in his heart, h
yet would be failure, nothing"
Love is the highest expression of man
nature, or the expression of the higheS
, mature. II is that for which all els
man has three-fold nature-(D Ami
NAL, (2)Intellectual, (OMoral. If b.
cultivate the animal mainly, and liv
for that and think for that, he is animal
If he cultivate the intellectual merely
} he is doing better. but only better.
L
! lectual and animal take their prope
} subordinate places. 1t is tyranny TO
the animal to control the intellectual
1t is a great tyranny for the intellectua
to control the moral The man is
. failure who eats and drinks and sleeps
but does not think. The man is still
failure, less gross and repulsive, but n
less failure, who thinks but does ne
3 love. Unthinking appetite-thatis an
NAL. Uncouscieuced intellect-that
satan. You lack the highest, and q
8 else is failure, total and irretrievabl'
y Like wealth, knowledge is good Sc
want but ruinous master. Real life
spiritual life, cannot be without love
!, supreme toward God, hearty towards OF
fellows. Take harmony out of musi